Surprises Behind the 10 Cent Frame
by little-miss-tiger
Summary: This is my entry for Julie Kagawa's contest. It takes place... somewhere during her series. Its one of my first fanfics, so please be easy on me : . Now you know what do do next. READ :D


_This story is about Meghan going back to school after the book. It's my first time writing fan fiction, so be kind, please. _

Meghan stopped at the school gate to smooth out her blue jacket and blond hair. She looked up at the towering grey building she had once gone to school in. It seemed like a lifetime ago, when she hadn't known about fey. She had been the object of bullying, the klutz, the loser, the friendless girl. The strange one. Now she was back. Still friendless, and probably still the loser.

Everyone had already gone into their first period classes, and Meghan climbed silently up the stone stairs, trying to take up as much time as possible. Her heart ached for Ash and her feet started to turn around. It was all she could do not to turn around and run out the door. A door beside her creaked open and a middle aged lady with graying hair looked at her.

"Everything okay?" She asked, sounding slightly annoyed. Meghan barely managed a nod and stayed rooted to the spot. The lady tapped one foot impatiently against the cold floor, causing little tap tapping noises to echo through the empty hallway. Gathering up her things, Meghan forced a small smile at the lady before continuing her climb up the staircase.

Finally, she reached a grey door marked ROOM 622. Pausing a hand on the door handle, she took another sigh and pinched herself hard, hoping it was just another bad nightmare and wishing she would hurry and wake up. A jolt of pain ran through her arm, and she let out a small scream. The handle turned, and a young lady with brown hair and sea green eyes smiled at her.

"Are you Meghan Chase?" She asked. Meghan nodded.

"I'm Ms. Glassenapp, your new Calculus teacher," Ms. Glassenapp said. She took Meghan's hand and pulled her into the room. Meghan stared at the silent class, her insides melting. The whole cheerleading team was in her class along with a few other popular girls and supposedly good looking guys. Christine McAfrost, the Miss Popular of their school whispered something to her friends, and they burst out laughing. Meghan's eyes met Nick Greenman's and he snickered, causing Meghan's cheeks to heat up red.

"Class, Class, settle down. Meghan here's going to join our class, and I want you to all make her feel welcome. Who wants to sit by Meghan?" Ms. Glassenapp asked. Everyone in the room burst out laughing, and Meghan shrank back. Ms. Glassenapp clapped her hands and everyone quieted to snickers and quiet giggles, but it seemed as if the room itself was laughing at Meghan. No one raised their hands. Meghan ducked out from Ms. Glassenapp's grasp and scurried over to one of the empty seats by the window to save herself the embarrassment. Unfortunately, the seat was beside Christine McAfrost. Christine scooted her seat as far away from Meghan as possible while the other cheerleaders gave Meghan death glares. Ms. Glassenapp frowned disapprovingly at the class and opened her mouth to say something, but her speech was cut off by the warning bell that signaled that class had begun.

Meghan pulled out her notebooks and pens and stared out at the window. She could deal with everyone. She dealt with Mab and survived, which was ten times worse than any situation with Christine and her group. That's what she kept telling herself but, deep down, she wasn't so sure. For the second time that day, she longed for Ash. Her pencil strayed from writing class notes and began sketching out faint outlines of Ash's face, his eyes, his hair, and his lips.

The clock's hands moved slowly and seemed to mock Meghan. When Calculus was over, she trudged over to History, trying to ignore the silent stares that seemed to follow her wherever she went. When she opened the door to History, Christine and her friends were already there. Sherry Small sighed loudly at the sight of Meghan, and the whole room seemed to glare at her. As if it was her fault for being in their class.

"C'mon! I had to suffer a whole class of Calculus sitting next to that loser. Now History too?" Courtney complained loudly. The teacher, a man with thinned, grey hair shook his head disapprovingly at Courtney, but a small half smirk half smile played on his lips. _Even the teachers hate me. _Meghan sighed and sank herself into the remaining seat besides Alison Hemming. Alison groaned loud enough for everyone to hear, then turned her back to Meghan and began gossiping quietly with Christine.

Tears started to well up in Meghan's eyes, but she quickly dabbed them away and returned to her unfinished picture of Ash, trying to forget all about her surroundings and the people that caused her pain. The minutes seemed to drag by, and after what seemed like an eternity, the lunch bell finally rung.

"Hey Meghan!" Liz McLisen shouted across the room. Meghan pivoted by the doorway and turned to look at her, bracing herself for another insult. Liz smiled at Christine, and then threw a smile at Meghan. Meghan blinked, and smiled suspiciously back at Liz.

"Wanna sit with me today? Are you sitting with anyone?" Liz asked cheerfully, coming up besides Meghan. Meghan blinked at stared hard at Liz, expecting Liz to laugh and make a snide remark. None came, so Meghan started to nod slowly.

"Sure, I mean, I'm not sitting with anyone," Meghan said. She lowered her defenses and started down the stairs. Liz smiled and giggled politely, and Meghan began to relax. A girl came up from behind her and opened her mouth to talk, but Meghan brushed right past, eager to be accepted by Liz. As they neared the next flight of stairs, Liz pulled her back and laughed, harsh and mean.

"Course you don't have anyone to sit next to. Silly me to ask. You're such a loner even the teachers won't want to sit with you. That's why you're so eager to make friends. Too bad. Go find someone more your level to make friends with. Like the garbage man," Liz laughed loud enough for everyone to hear. Christine giggled and came up from behind Meghan. She brushed 'accidentally' against Meghan and Liz began following her.

"Good one, Liz. C'mon lets go before she actually believes you and starts following us to lunch," Christine said. Meghan stared at Christine's long, wavy brown hair as Christine bounced downstairs, her large group of friends following behind her.

Sighing and fighting back tears for the hundredth time that day, Meghan began the long climb down the lunch room alone. A single salty tear streaked down her face and part of it wetted her lip. Brushing it away, Meghan silently scolded herself. She was stronger than this in front of Mab, and Christine and her friends weren't even half as bad.

The same girl came up next to Meghan, but Meghan walked quickly away. She didn't need any sympathy or fake friends again. She didn't need a repeat of her life before Fae.

Fae. A wave of homesickness washed over her, quickly followed by the insistent, tugging longing for Ash. Tears began to cloud her vision and she dabbed them away with her already tearstained sleeves. She walked into the lunch room. No one paid any attention to her. No one acknowledged her presence. It was as if she was invisible.

Meghan took a deep breath and forced herself to be brave. She slid into a seat around an empty table and began picking away at her tuna sandwich. The ice cold tuna numbed her teeth and lips, reminding her of Ash. She closed her eyes and could feel Ash's lips pressed against hers. Ice cold, hard, insistent. That was the last memory she had of him before he brought her back home. Fighting back fresh tears, Meghan opened her eyes to find Christine and her gang staring at Meghan with some kind of marvel. Meghan looked behind her, expecting some popular, pretty girl to be sitting behind Meghan. Nope. They were definitely staring at Meghan.

Then she saw him. Sauntering down the lunch room with his dark eyes set on Meghan, a rare smile tugging at the corner of his lips. The room quieted a little, and it felt as if all eyes were on Meghan and Ash.

"That's the hot guy I was talking about. Make some room for him!" Meghan heard one girl say. Other girls checked their reflection in their water glasses, or just moved over and patted the spot next to them. Ash didn't notice. He slid into the seat beside Meghan, and Meghan just about threw herself into his arms.

A familiar cold shiver went up her back, and Ash chuckled softly before hugging her. Meghan sat up straight again, oblivious of the jealous looks she was receiving from the other girls.

"Hey, do you want to sit with us? You could be really popular, you know. You might even get a shot with Christine. You don't wanna waste your time with the school loser," Sasha Pason said, nodding to Meghan. Meghan's cheeks burned red again, and Meghan shrunk into her seat, her hands tightly clutching Ash's cold one. Ash raised his eyebrows at Christine, who had stood up and was now standing beside Sasha.

"Really? Is that what guys do here? Ditch their perfectly good girlfriends for snobby, anorexic girls?" Ash asked coolly. Sasha's face turned five shades of red and she began picking at a loose seam in her shirt.

"Do what you want. C'mon Sasha," Christine said, turning away with an air of superiority. Meghan rolled her eyes at Christine's retreating back, her confidence coming back to her again. Ash shook his head, chuckling, and picked at his food. They ate in awkward silence.

"I haven't seen you in a long time," Meghan said, pushing cleared plates around the ugly plastic tray.

"Same with you," Ash said. His eyes stared straight behind Meghan, at the cheerleader table, and Meghan suddenly felt annoyed.

"I wait for you for this long, go back to the school I hated just for a chance to see you, and when I do all you say is 'same with you?' Oh yeah, then you ogle at a couple cheerleaders. I thought guys don't ditch perfectly good girls for snobby, anorexic ones?" Meghan demanded. She stood up and picked up her plastic tray.

"Ariella. Something about that girl Christine tells me Ariella," Ash said slowly. Meghan turned to walk away, but Ash's hand tugged at her wrist, sitting her back down. Before Meghan could say anything, Christine stared at them, and then came over to their table.

"Did you just say Ariella?" Christine asked. Ash nodded.

Christine opened her mouth to say something else, but she shook her head and went back to her table muttering, "Can't be. There's a billion Ariellas' in this world."

"She knows," Ash said softly. Meghan looked at Ash, a billion questions cramped up in her mind.

"About what?" Meghan asked, confused. Ash sighed as if the answer was obvious which, to Meghan, was not.

"Ariella," Ash said. Meghan shook her head.

"She's a mortal. Mortals don't know about this stuff," Meghan said, shaking her head again as if to reassure herself too.

"Does she really look like a mortal? Look again," Ash said. Meghan looked at Christine, laughing and talking, surrounded by a group of friends. If you looked carefully, and you knew exactly what you were looking for, you could see that Christine's ears were actually pointed on the ends. Her skin was a slightly blue tinted color, like Ash's, and her eyes were an impossibly dark shade of blue. Not human. Meghan looked in wonder at Ash.

"Why can't anyone else see it? Why can you? What does she have to do with Ariella? What-" Meghan's steady stream of questions was muffled as Ash clamped his hand down over Meghan's mouth. She shivered as his cool skin made contact with her lips.

"She's winter fey," Ash said, "It's just like how everyone can see me and you, but can't tell that we're any different. Human minds mask their vision and make them believe what they want to believe. So other mortals believe we're just like them when, in reality, we're not."

"What does she have to do with Ariella?" Meghan asked again. Ash said nothing, but picked up his tray.

"Hey, you're ignoring the question," Meghan said, pulling him back down again.

"If she's who I think she is..." Ash said. Then he stopped and shook his head, picking up his plastic tray and Meghan's. He returned a few seconds later with a tired look on his face as Meghan repeated her question.

"What does she have to do with Ariella?"

"It's… complicated," Ash said, shaking his head.

"Besides, I don't think she's even who I think she is. That was long ago. There are billions of winter fey that look like her," Ash said.

Sighing, Meghan followed Ash out the door. The subject was dropped, and wasn't continued again for that day.

That night, Meghan snuggled under her covers, thoughts swirling around her head like a whirlwind. She tried holding Christine's face up with her mental image of Ariella, but nothing clicked. She tried recalling everything Ash ever said about Ariella, which wasn't much, but he never mentioned anything about another girl, or another winter fey.

She slipped silently out of bed and out into the woods by her house where she had once seen Ash. The midnight blue sky shone with a thousand tiny blinking stars and the moon hung full and bright like a lamp. The trees rustled softly in the cool breeze and casted long shadows across the leaf covered floor.

Meghan crouched on the ground where she had once seen Ash. She looked around the empty landscape for the winter prince, but her only company was a little squirrel gathering the last of the nuts off the ground.

She curled up on the cold ground and waited. After a while, her eyelids began to droop. Sleepily, she stood up. An icy hand touched her shoulder and sent jolts up her back, waking her up. She turned around to face Ash, who had an amused look on his face.

"You like sleeping outside?"Ash asked. Meghan rolled her eyes.

"You've been trying to avoid the subject," Meghan said.

"What subject?" Ash asked innocently.

"Christine. Ariella," Meghan said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I don't remember, but I found this," Ash sighed and brought a picture out from his pocket. Meghan bit her lip as she saw Ariella's face smiling up from behind the small, hand carved wooden frame. He still carried a picture of Ariella, but didn't have one of Meghan.

The sinking feeling went away and Meghan gasped as she took a closer look. The picture was taken during a blizzard, probably when Ash and Ariella first met, as it looked older, and Ariella looked very young. What surprised Meghan most was the figure whose long brown hair fluttered out behind in perfect waves. The person who was dressed in a fur lined, blue cloak. The person laughing and talking between Ash and Ariella. Christine.


End file.
